Deadly Holidays by Alexa Grace Page B

avail. 
     
    As part of the Amber Alert, the television media ran continuous ticker tape messages across the bottom of the screen urging anyone who had seen Shawn to call the sheriff's office.  The few calls they'd received were checked out.  None of them panned out.  “Missing” posters could be seen in every shop, restaurant, gas station and grocery store, and were nailed to every wooden light post and tree.  There wasn't a person in the county who wasn't looking for Shawn Isaac.
     
    Blake opened his notepad to review the notes he'd taken during the interviews he'd done, praying that some piece of information he hadn't noticed before would pop out to help him find this little boy. 
     
    Blake re-read his notes and stopped when he got to the page describing his questioning of Billy Collins.  It still bothered him that the five-year-old wouldn't meet his eyes when he answered a question.  The kid wouldn't meet his eyes and fidgeted with his fingers, as if he were anxious about something.  And once he'd answered Blake's questions, he acted thrilled his mother asked him to go to his room.  In fact, he couldn't get out of the room fast enough.
     
    Did he fear Blake because he was a police officer?  Or was he lying because he had information about Shawn?
     
    It was worth a second visit to Billy's house to find out.
     
     
     
    <><><> 
     
     
     

December 24
     
    Sometime during the night, Shawn awakened to howling wind that blasted so hard against the house, it shook the glass in the attic window.  He crawled out of his sleeping bag and dragged it with him to the window, where he wrapped it around his body for warmth as he gazed outside.  There was more snow than Shawn had ever seen blanketing the neighborhood, drifting up against the houses, covering some of the festive colored lights that twinkled beneath.  Rubbing his freezing hands together, he watched as a truck, its wipers struggling to clear the windshield, crept by in the foot of snow that had filled the street.
     
    Tree branches heavy with snow bent toward the ground.  In the moonlight, the snow shimmered as snowflakes continued falling from the sky, blowing diagonally across the window.  At times it was snowing so hard, Shawn couldn't see even the closest house.
     
    Shawn leaned back against the wall and looked around the attic illuminated by the moonlight.  Filled with loneliness, he wished Billy could stay in the attic with him.
     
    Shawn closed his eyes and pretended he was at Detective Blake's house.  He was sitting close to Mrs. Stone on the sofa and she was reading to him.  He loved to sit close to her while she read out loud.  With her arm around him, her body was warm and she smelled like flowers.  And when she read, she acted out the characters so the story came to life.
     
    Shawn remembered the time he'd scraped his knee while playing catch with Detective Brennan in their backyard.  Shawn didn't cry, but Detective Blake picked him up and gave him the biggest hug.  Then he carried him inside piggy-back style to put some medicine and a bandage on his knee.  After that, Mrs. Stone gave him a chocolate chip cookie with some milk.  He thought Mrs. Stone must be the nicest and most beautiful woman in the world.
     
    If only Detective Blake didn't work for the sheriff.  But he did, and that meant he would make Shawn go home if he found him.
     
    At his last visit to the attic, Billy had announced tomorrow was Christmas Day.  That meant Santa would visit tonight.  Would Santa be able to find him stuck away in Billy's attic?  Shawn hoped with all his heart that Santa would find him tonight and take him far, far away.  He'd give any Christmas toys earmarked for him to other children, just so Santa would take him away.
     
    Though he hadn't done it in a long time, Shawn wanted to suck his thumb.  He hadn't sucked his thumb since his daddy caught him, and hit Shawn so hard that he fell out of his chair.  Well, his daddy wasn't